Photo Friday: Dedicating the DC night to those who want to serve openly – repeal DADT

Building Projection, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” Washington, DC, USA

This week has two Photo Fridays, one celebrating those who serve openly, one celebrating those who are not allowed to serve openly…yet. The photograph above was taken during FotoWeek DC, and is a slideshow projection on the Human Rights Campaign national headquarters, near Dupont Circle.

As with so many discriminatory policies before it, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell will likely be repealed, ending the unhealthful and harmful practices that came from it. It won’t be missed, either in Washington, DC community, or in the United States. Love always wins.

A Pentagon study group has concluded that the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts, according to two people familiar with a draft of the report, which is due to President Obama on Dec. 1.

More than 70 percent of respondents to a survey sent to active-duty and reserve troops over the summer said the effect of repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would be positive, mixed or nonexistent, said two sources familiar with the document. The survey results led the report’s authors to conclude that objections to openly gay colleagues would drop once troops were able to live and serve alongside them.